Poppitz Pairs

I started this story by looking at a wedding anniversary for this date and ended by finding a high school soccer teammate of mine…..at least I think so. The couple getting married on April 28, 1946 was Marvin Poppitz and Anita Perr.

They were united in wedlock at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg by Rev. Adolph Vogel. Here is their marriage license.

Poppitz/Perr marriage license

This marriage caused me to look at this branch of the Poppitz family, and I found a very interesting fact. First of all, Marvin Poppitz was the son of Ernst and Mallinda (Riske) Poppitz of Altenburg. Here is a photo of Ernst and Mallinda.

Ernst and Mallinda (Riske) Poppitz

Marvin was born on April 1, 1921, but he wasn’t the only child born that day. He had a twin sister, Mildred Poppitz. And if that wasn’t enough, four years later on September 2, 1925, Ernst and Mallinda were blessed with their second set of twins, Viola and Violet Poppitz. This couple would end up with a double set of twins. Here is a photo of this family taken while the children were still relatively young.

Ernst Poppitz family

Before I go on to talk about the children, I want to tell a little about their father, Ernst. When he was 26 years old, he registered for the World War I draft. Here is that form.

The form indicates that Ernst was employed as a grocery clerk in Lincoln, Kansas. This is in an are of Kansas where we find several Perry County boys living for a while during that era. Ernst was inducted into the army and did go overseas to serve. Here is his military record.

CO A 313 ENGINEERS is the same company in which Rudolph Palisch served. We told his story in the post titled, From Frohna to France – A WWI Wagoner. In that post it was noted that this unit was part of the 88th Division which was designated by this patch they wore on their uniforms.

It was not long after World War I that Ernst married Mallinda Riske from near Sullivan, Missouri. Ernst became a cashier at the Bank of Altenburg where he spent many years. Here is a photo of him standing in front of the 1910 bank building along with the other bank officers sometime in the 1940’s.

Ernst Poppitz (left) Rudolph Pruesser (middle) Vernon Meyr (right)

Ernst was still working at the bank when they broke ground for a new bank across Main Street in 1950.

Now what about the kids? One has some trouble researching more recent people is that there are privacy issues with finding documentation on them. I am sure I could talk to some of the “locals” and find more information, but I think that would delay this post. So I will just tell what I know.

Marvin married Anita Perr. He is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.

Mildred married Aloysius Septeowski. She is buried in St. Louis.

Viola married Wilbert Zabel. She is also buried in St. Louis.

Violet married Norman Arling.

It is when I saw the name Septeowski that I began to wonder if this Aloysius Septeowski had any connection to a guy I played soccer with at Lutheran High School North in St. Louis. When I found a photograph of him, I think there is a probability of about 99% that Aloysius was the father of my teammate, Dale Septeowski. I will let you also see what I saw. Here is a photo of Aloysius next to a Dale Septeowski’s high school photo from 1968.

I am also going to treat you to a picture of the 1968 Lutheran High School North soccer team which included both Dale and me.

Dale is the third from the left in the back row. I am fourth from the left in the front. There are a few other names in that photo that may have Perry County connection. I know there is a Wachter, a Burroughs, and a Doerr in the photo. Maybe someday I will tie some more in this photo to this place.

I don’t know what happened to all of the guys in this photo, but I can tell you that in this photo you can find a Lutheran high school theology teacher, a college education professor who does mission work in Africa, and a former President of the Iowa East District of the LCMS. It was a fine group of young men who also happened to be a fairly decent soccer team. We won 8 games that year, which was 8 games more than we won the year before. We did pretty well as long as we weren’t playing the Catholics.

Thank you for this article – I am Kathryn (Streufert) Poppitz – daughter-in-law – of Marvin and Anita Poppitz. I don’t remember that Mallinda spelled her name will two L’s. I would send you a picture of our family as well as Ernst’s WW1 photo. Is there a way to post it here?

You can send a photo to research@lutheranmuseum.com and I will get it posted somewhere. Also, we would love to have those kinds of photos as part of our museum collection. It helps us preserve the history of East Perry County.

Thank you for sharing. My name is Kristina Rainwater-Finn, granddaughter of Violet (Poppitz) Arling. I can confirm she is alive and well and living in St. Louis. We were lucky enough to visit Perry County with my grandmother just 2 summers ago and toured Altenberg with her and it was a true blessing to see her come alive with memories.

Thank you for the article. My name is Lavonne (Poppitz) Lehner, daughter of Marvin and Anita Poppitz. I especially enjoyed the picture of Grandma, Grandpa, dad and his sisters when they were young. Two years ago I and two cousins (from my mom’s side “Perr”) visited the Museum and Perry County and thoroughly enjoyed the visit. I also enjoyed seeing the picture of a young Dale SEPTEOWSKI, my cousin who currently lives in Chicago. Thanks again for the fine article. It brought back many memories.